This time the world did not stop for Alessandro Del Piero. When the fourth official's board went up at 10.33pm on Sunday evenimg, calling time on Il Pinturicchio's Juventus career, he simply ran to the sideline and was replaced. Unlike a week earlier, when supporters at his final home appearance had demanded a mid-game lap of honour, there was no time for sentimentality here. The Bianconeri had less than 30 minutes to rescue their unbeaten season.

There was also the small matter of a trophy being at stake. Twelve months and five days removed from their last defeat, at Parma in their penultimate game of 2010‑11, Juventus found themselves a goal down to Napoli in the Coppa Italia final. By claiming the Scudetto, Antonio Conte's side had already exceeded all expectations for this campaign but after 42 games the thought of missing this chance to become the first Italian side ever to complete an undefeated double was galling.

Juventus, though, were not the only ones with an eye on the history books. Not since 1990, when Diego Maradona led them to the Scudetto then victory in the pre-season SuperCoppa – against Juventus, no less – had Napoli got their hands on any meaningful silverware. In the interim they had gone bust, having to be relaunched in the third tier in 2004 under a new owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, and initially under a different name.

If Napoli's resurrection had been confirmed by this year's run to the last 16 of the Champions League, then the desire to crown it with a trophy was palpable. The captain, Paolo Cannavaro, was only eight when the club claimed that last Scudetto – still a boy and yet old enough to remember celebrations which got so out of hand that fans tagged gravestones with graffiti reading "You don't know what you're missing". He told reporters last week that "winning here would be better than winning a World Cup and a Ballon d'Or".

Such words were, of course, aimed at his brother Fabio, who claimed both in 2006, but there was no questioning how much this trophy would mean to the younger sibling. Having supported the Partenopei since he was a child, Paolo now had the chance to become the first Neapolitan to lift the Coppa Italia as captain since Antonio Juliano in 1976.

Nor was this just about the locals. The fear that this team could be broken up this summer has been palpable for some time – Napoli's remarkable European run bringing players such as Edinson Cavani and Ezequiel Lavezzi to the attention of the continent's richest clubs. With the latter, in particular, being linked strongly to both Paris St-Germain and Internazionale, the whole squad approached this game knowing their window to claim a trophy together was closing.

Lavezzi had been jeered and whistled by Napoli's supporters over his supposed disloyalty at the end of their final league game, a 2-1 home win over Siena, yet it was he who effectively broke the deadlock on Sunday, winning a penalty when he raced through to be brought down by the Juventus goalkeeper Marco Storari early in the second half. De Laurentiis was too nervous to watch as Cavani, who had twice failed to convert from the spot this season, slotted the ball calmly into the bottom right corner.

The goal was just reward for Napoli, who had been the more enterprising team throughout, even if they were fortunate not to have given away a penalty at the end of the first half, when Salvatore Aronica arrived late into a challenge on Claudio Marchisio inside the area. Conte responded to their goal by replacing Del Piero and Stephan Lichtsteiner with Mirko Vucinic and Simone Pepe. He would soon withdraw Marco Borriello, too, in favour of Fabio Quagliarella.

At last Juventus began to show some threat, Leonardo Bonucci drawing a fine save from Morgan De Sanctis with a volley from the edge of the box. The keeper could claim less credit after his feet got in the way of a Pepe drive across goal which had been redirected back towards the near post by Quagliarella.

But it is no secret that Napoli do their best work on the counterattack. With seven minutes to play Marek Hamsik completed a lightning break by clipping the ball across Storari to extend his team's lead.

Juventus had recovered from two goals down against Napoli already once this season – having trailed 2-0 and then 3-1 before eventually drawing 3-3 in the league meeting at San Paolo – but with so little time remaining there was never a sense that the feat could be repeated. Unable to pull even one back, they were instead reduced to 10 men when Quagliarella swung an elbow at Aronica after the latter had been manhandling him at a set-piece.

At full-time Del Piero trudged out from the dugout to thank Juventus's fans with glossy eyes. "We close an extraordinary season with a bitter taste in our mouths," he said. "But even if we didn't put the cherry on top, we did still take home the cake."

Tears were shed by the victors too, Lavezzi in particular getting choked up at the final whistle. This was the Argentinian's fifth season with Napoli – having joined the club just as they returned to the top-flight. He has spoken many times of his affection for the city, but more recently also of the difficulties of day-to-day life in such an environment.

There was a furious reaction – including from De Laurentiis – when Lavezzi's girlfriend, Yanina Screpante, defined Naples as a "shit city" on Twitter after being robbed of her watch at gunpoint, but the player's own words in an interview given to Sportweek magazine not long afterwards were more revealing. He spoke of how it was impossible for him to even go to the park when his son, who lives in Argentina, comes to visit, due to the inevitability of getting mobbed.

Such a show of emotion on Sunday would appear to suggest that this was indeed his final appearance for the club, but there will be time enough to worry about transfers in the weeks ahead. This was a moment to celebrate, the players tossing their manager, Walter Mazzarri, up into the air in the customary fashion. Hamsik, as he had promised to do, allowed team-mates to shave off his Mohawk.

The team did not get back to Naples from Rome until roughly 4am, yet still found the streets lined with tens of thousands of supporters as they launched into an immediate open-top bus parade. They might not yet have reached the heights achieved with Diego Maradona but 25 years on from their first Scudetto, this felt like a good place to start.